Thursday January 29, 2004
MediaGuardian.co.uk
April-June 2002: Ministry of Defence scientist David Kelly is consulted as the dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction is put together.
June 20: The Foreign Office submits draft chapters of the dossier.
September 3: Tony Blair promises to publish a dossier of evidence “in the next few weeks”.
September 5: Draft of dossier is circulated. Alastair Campbell says it needs a “substantial rewrite … as per TB’s discussion”.
September 9: Patrick Lamb, deputy head of the FO’s counter-proliferation unit, shows the draft of his chapter of the dossier to Dr Kelly.
September 10-11: The 45 minute claim makes its first appearance in a new draft of the dossier.
September 15: New draft circulated.
September 17: Tony Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, sends an email saying the latest dossier contains no evidence of “an imminent threat”.
· Powell’s email
September 19: The Defence Intelligence Services discusses redraft of the dossier after insiders expressed concern over its contents.
September 24: The dossier is published, including the statement that Iraq can deploy WMD within 45 minutes. Tony Blair describes the threat as “serious and current”.
· The September dossier
February 2003: The so-called “dodgy” dossier is published, containing passages lifted from a 12-year-old PhD thesis.
May 7: In a telephone call, Dr Kelly tells Newsnight reporter Susan Watts that the September dossier presented the facts “in a very black and white way”.
· Susan Watts’ conversation with David Kelly
May 22: Dr Kelly meets BBC defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan in a hotel in central London.
· Gilligan’s notes from the meeting
May 29: In a report on Radio 4′s Today programme, Gilligan quotes a source who believes Downing Street wanted the September dossier “sexed up”.
· Transcript of Gilligan’s Today report
June 1: Gilligan repeats the allegations in his column in the Mail on Sunday, with more details of the information given by his unnamed source.
· Gilligan’s Mail on Sunday piece
June 2: Newsnight correspondent Susan Watts reports “a senior official” claimed the intelligence services came under heavy political pressure over the 45 minute claim.
June 3: Dr John Reid, the leader of the Commons, claims “rogue elements” in the security services are responsible for spreading falsehoods about the September dossier.
June 6: Tony Blair’s official spokesman uses his briefing to highlight a “series of inaccuracies” in Gilligan’s reports.
June 8: Gilligan’s latest Mail on Sunday column accuses Downing Street of briefing against him.
June 19: Gilligan tells the foreign affairs select committee that his source was “one of the senior officials in charge of drawing up the dossier”.
· Gilligan’s evidence
June 25: Alastair Campbell faces the FAC, telling them the BBC’s claim “is completely and totally untrue… it is actually a lie.”
· Campbell’s evidence
June 26: Mr Campbell writes to the BBC demanding an apology. Richard Sambrook, the BBC’s director of news, says it is “an unprecedented level of pressure from Downing Street”.
· Sambrook’s response to Campbell
June 30: Dr Kelly writes to his manager, Bryan Wells, admitting he had met Gilligan on May 22.
July 4: MoD drafts a statement referring to Dr Kelly as “an unnamed official”. Tony Blair meets with government advisers to discuss the situation.
July 5: A report in the Times identifies Gilligan’s source as a scientist working in Iraq.
July 6: BBC governors give unconditional backing to Gilligan. Geoff Hoon presses Tony Blair to agree to release Dr Kelly’s name to the foreign affairs select committee.
· BBC governors’ statement
July 7: Mr Blair discusses Dr Kelly being Gilligan’s source in a second meeting with government advisers. The FAC publishes its report into the Iraq intelligence dossier.
· Foreign affairs select committee report
July 8: The MoD releases a statement saying an official has admitted speaking to Andrew Gilligan. The BBC’s response says the description does not match Gilligan’s source.
· Full MoD statement
July 9: Geoff Hoon writes to Gavyn Davies asking him to confirm whether David Kelly is the source. The BBC refuses, but the MoD confirms to journalists that Dr Kelly is the official involved. Downing Street denies being the source of the leak.
· BBC’s response to Hoon
July 10: The Times, the Guardian and the Financial Times name Dr Kelly as the source of Gilligan’s allegations.
July 15: Dr Kelly faces the FAC, which decides he was “most unlikely” to be the source of the “sexed up” claims.
· Kelly’s evidence to the committee
July 16: Tony Blair refuses to apologise, saying the BBC should name the source. “All they have to do is say yes or no – why don’t they?” he asks.
July 17: Gilligan faces the FAC for a second time, and is branded an “unsatisfactory witness”. At 3pm, Dr Kelly leaves home, telling his wife he is going for a walk. When he fails to return home by 11.45pm, his family contacts the police.
· FAC report on Gilligan’s evidence
July 18: Dr Kelly is reported missing by Thames Valley Police. Around 9.20am, police find a body near to his home.
July 19: Police confirm the body is that of Dr Kelly. They believe his took his own life by cutting his wrist, possibly after taking powerful painkillers.
July 20: The BBC issues a statement after talking to Dr Kelly’s family, naming him as the source of both Andrew Gilligan’s report and those of Newsnight reporter Susan Watts.
· BBC statements
July 21: Lord Hutton is appointed head of an independent inquiry into the events surrounding Dr Kelly’s death. Mail on Sunday deputy editor Roderick Gilchrist says Alastair Campbell is in a “disturbed and dangerous psychological state” and “out of control”.
· Hutton: I will control scope of inquiry
August 1: The Hutton inquiry begins hearing forensic evidence on the death of Dr Kelly.
August 6: Dr Kelly is buried near his Oxfordshire home. John Prescott represents the government, standing in for defence secretary Geoff Hoon who is on holiday.
· Friends bid farewell to ‘gentle’ Kelly
August 11: The Hutton inquiry begins interviewing witnesses. It hears that two senior intelligence officers, one retired, also had concerns about content of Iraq intelligence dossier.
· MoD man reveals dossier ‘disquiet’
August 12: An email from Kevin Marsh, the editor of the Today programme, is shown to the inquiry. He criticises Andrew Gilligan’s “flawed reporting” and “loose use of language”.
· Kevin Marsh’s email about Gilligan
August 13: Newsnight’s Susan Watts accuses BBC bosses of trying to “mould” her story to “corroborate” Gilligan’s report. A recording of her May 7 telephone call with Dr Kelly shows he did claim someone, probably No 10, “sexed up” the dossier.
· Susan Watts’ conversation with David Kelly
August 14: The inquiry hears how defence secretary Geoff Hoon overruled his top civil servant and ordered Dr Kelly before the FAC. Tony Blair is also mentioned to the inquiry for first time, reportedly thinking Dr Kelly needed to be subjected to a second grilling.
· Hoon was asked not to put Kelly on ‘trial’
August 18: Mr Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, reveals how he believed the Iraq dossier did not contain proof of an “imminent threat”.
· No 10 warned of Saddam claim
August 19: Alastair Campbell tells the inquiry that he had nothing to do with inserting the 45 minute claim into the September dossier.
August 20: No 10 spokesmen reveal Campbell had considered leaking Dr Kelly’s admission – meanwhile, Gilligan may have blown the scientist’s cover in an email to FAC members.
· Gilligan’s email
August 21: Dr Kelly said Gilligan’s report was “bullshit” and that, if Iraq was invaded, he would “probably be found dead in the woods”, witnesses revealed.
August 23: The Hutton inquiry releases some 900 documents submitted in evidence for public consumption on its internet site.
· Read the evidence on the Hutton inquiry website
August 25: Gilligan looks increasingly under fire after he submits a new witness statement to Lord Hutton in light of his email to FAC members.
August 26: Dr Kelly suggested he had been ‘led on’ by Gilligan at an interview with his MoD bosses, security chief John Scarlett reveals.
· Kelly was ‘led on’ by Gilligan
August 27: Defence secretary Geoff Hoon distances himself from the decision to reveal Dr Kelly’s name, and says Downing Street was intimately involved in the treatment of the scientist.
· Hoon: I did not out Kelly
August 28: Tony Blair appears before the inquiry, telling Lord Hutton “the responsibility is mine” for the decisions that led to the naming of Dr Kelly.
· Blair: the responsibility is mine
August 29: Alastair Campbell resigns as Downing Street’s director of communications, denying that the Hutton inquiry has had any bearing on his decision.
September 1: Family and friends reveal Dr Kelly’s state of mind before his death. His wife, Janice, says he was “distracted, dejected” and appeared “heartbroken” on the day he disappeared.
· Dr Kelly’s final days
September 2: An eminent psychiatrist says it is ‘well nigh certain’ that Dr Kelly committed suicide, as the inquiry hears details of the discovery of his body.
September 3: The government receives a severe blow as intelligence officers reveal how Dr Kelly was privy to concerns that some claims in the Iraq dossier were ‘overegged’.
· Bombshell hits No 10 claims
September 4: As the inquiry’s first stage comes to a close, it emerges that senior officials believed the ‘ownership’ of the controversial dossier ‘lay with No 10′.
· Full text of Lord Hutton’s closing statement
September 15: As the inquiry enters its second phase, BBC director general Greg Dyke gives evidence, saying Alastair Campbell attacked the BBC to “settle old scores”, revealing he did not know about concerns over Gilligan’s report and admonishing the reporter’s contact with FAC members as “unacceptable”.
· Dyke: Campbell was ‘settling old scores’
September 16: The government is accused of playing “Russian roulette” with Dr Kelly’s identity, as a number of MoD officials are cross-examined.
September 17: Gilligan apologises for leaking Dr Kelly’s identity to MPs and claims his allegation over the insertion of the 45-minute claim was a “slip of the tongue”.
· Transcript of Gilligan’s cross-examination
September 18: The MoD’s head of press says it was “highly likely” Geoff Hoon had knowledge of the naming strategy. Gilligan appears for a third time to discount discrepancies in the notes on his electronic organiser.
September 22: Mr Hoon once again says there was “no conspiracy” to reveal Dr Kelly’s name, but Alastair Campbell’s diaries reveal No 10 and the MoD hoped Dr Kelly would “fuck Gilligan”.
· Extracts from Campbell’s diary
September 23: Downing Street spokesman Tom Kelly tells the inquiry his description of Dr Kelly as a “Walter Mitty character” had been “misunderstood”.
September 24: BBC chairman Gavyn Davies again defends decision-making at the corporation. The inquiry hears how Dr Kelly believed his own mother committed suicide in the 1960s.
September 25: Lawyers acting for all interested parties make their closing statements as the inquiry draws to a close. Lord Hutton announces he is likely to produce a report by November or December, although this is later delayed.
October 13: The key policy decisions that led to the unmasking of Dr Kelly were taken at a Downing Street meeting chaired by Tony Blair, according to Sir Kevin Tebbit, the top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence. Sir Kevin had returned for a final hearing at the inquiry after being unavailable earlier because of an eye operation.
· Blair chaired meeting that led to unmasking of Kelly, inquiry told
December 29: Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s director of policy and legal affairs, said that senior BBC executives may be forced to resign when the Hutton inquiry reports. She said the Today programme report fell short of the “truth and accuracy” that are the “gold standard of the BBC”.
January 5 2004: In an email to staff, the BBC director general, Greg Dyke, said that there will be “no scapegoating within the BBC” as a result of the Hutton report. “What is important once Hutton is published is that, if the BBC is criticised, we learn from whatever is written – assuming, of course, that we agree with what is said,” he said.
· Dyke: there are no fall guys for Hutton
January 8: Tony Blair is forced to admit, during prime minister’s questions, that he would have to resign if the Hutton report says he lied after denying authorising the leaking of Dr Kelly’s name.
· I would quit if I lied, Blair tells MPs Meanwhile, Lord Hutton moves to dampen media coverage of disclosures that the government had made late submissions to the inquiry. Other parties involved could do the same, and there was no great importance about the late submissions, Lord Hutton said.
・ All parties able to make late submissions, says Hutton
January 15: Lord Hutton says that his report will be published on Wednesday January 28 2004. This is the day after Tony Blair faces a difficult vote on tuition fees, making it a crunch week for his premiership.
· 24 hours in the life or death of a premiership
January 16: It emerges that Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy will be allowed to see the Hutton report six hours before its publication, but the media will be denied any prior access.
・ Opposition to be locked in at dawn with Hutton report
January 20: 48% of voters think that Tony Blair was lying when he said he did not authorise the leaking of Dr Kelly’s name, a Guardian/ICM poll says. The poll says 63% believe Mr Blair should resign if Lord Hutton concludes that he lied.
· Hutton: 48% think Blair lied
January 28: The Sun gets a leak of the Hutton report, publishing some of its key findings on the morning of its official publication.
· Sun faces investigation into how it obtained leaked copyLord Hutton delivers a summary of his conclusions at the royal courts of justice prior to the report’s publication at 1.30pm. The report exonerates the government and castigates the BBC. Lord Hutton threatens legal action against the Sun over the leak.
· Key findingsTony Blair tells the Commons that the “real lie” was the claim he had lied to the country. He calls on those who had accused him of doing so to withdraw their accusations. The Conservative leader, Michael Howard, does not apologise, telling the Commons that nobody from the government emerges from the affair with credit.
· ‘The allegation that I lied to the country is itself the real lie’ The BBC’s chairman of governors, Gavyn Davies, resigns. ・Crisis cuts through the BBC